Nothing beats a win. For Gus Greensmith, victory on Saturday’s Rally Vsetín – his first ever outright rally win – represents the perfect preparation for what’s going to be one of the biggest weeks of his career when he starts Central European Rally on Thursday.
The Englishman has a real chance of lifting this year’s WRC2 crown, but he knows nothing short of the perfect performance will do when he arrives into Prague for the start.
Greensmith starts the final WRC2 round of his season third in the standings, with series leader Andreas Mikkelsen and Yohan Rossel ahead of him by nine and five points respectively. Like Greensmith, CER represents Rossel’s final point-scoring outing of 2023. Mikkelsen, however, could still chase more points in Japan next month.
Greensmith’s not giving any of that too much headspace.
“I feel we have the best possible preparation going into the event,” Greensmith told DirtFish.
“Before the rally last weekend, we did a two-day test which was wet one day and dry the next. But even when it was dry and 23 degrees, it was still wet and slippery under the trees. We made some changes to the car and now we really have the car doing what we want to do.”
After the test, Greensmith dominated the Czech national rally, winning every stage to top the overall classification from local Škoda man Adam Brezík.
“The speed was good,” he added, “I was happy with the rally. We know from Škoda where Adam’s speed delta is in relation to Jan Kopecký – we know where we are and I’m happy with that.
“Next week is going to be a difficult event to decide our championship, it’s a very, very tricky event which opens up the opportunity for a lot to happen. Basically, I need to come out of here nine points ahead of Andreas.
“After that, if Andreas goes to Japan, he needs to finish higher than his previous best score (fourth in Finland) to add to his points tally.
“For me, it’s not quite like I have to win – but if I want a realistic chance of the title then I really need maximum points. Obviously, Yohan [Rossel] is in there as well and we know he’s very good in wet and slippery conditions.”
